United Broth. of Carpenters and Joiners of America v. Pascagoula Veneer Co.

• Decision Date: 08 October 1956
• Docket Number: No. 40233,40233
• Citation: 89 So.2d 711,228 Miss. 799
• Parties: UNITED BROTHERHOOD OF CARPENTERS & JOINERS OF AMERICA et al. v. PASCAGOULA VENEER COMPANY.
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

Page 711

89 So.2d 711

228 Miss. 799

UNITED BROTHERHOOD OF CARPENTERS & JOINERS OF AMERICA et

al. v. PASCAGOULA VENEER COMPANY.

No. 40233.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

Oct. 8, 1956.

Charles S. Mitchell, Pascagoula, Jackson & Ross, Jackson, for appellants.

Morse & Morse, Gulfport, for appellee.

LEE, Justice.

Pascagoula Veneer Company, a Delaware corporation, doing business at Pascagoula under the Agricultural and Industrial Program in this State, on November 1, 1955, by its bill of complaint, sought an injunction to restrain and enjoin certain named defendants, and officers and agents and all other persons acting in concert with them, and all striking employees participating in a strike from picketing its plant and molesting or interfering with its employees. The International Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, and B. R. Upton, W. C. Oliver and Frank Garner, its alleged representatives, and R. C. Dubose, John Stallworth, Clyde Houston, Jr., Eugene Smith, Masie Lidell, Mamie Simmons, Viola Mims, Blanche Johnson, Rebecca Leroy and Willie Belle McMillan, residents of Jackson County, were made defendants. On the same date, the chancellor ordered the issuance of a temporary injunction, and the writ therefor was issued by the clerk and directed to the named defendants, commanding them to desist from picketing in any manner whatsoever at or near the plant of complainant or the entrance thereto, and from wearing or showing placards or signs, and from threatening and committing violence against any present or future employee of the complainant.

The return of process showed service on the International Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America 'by personally handing its representatives E. R. Upton, W. C. Oliver, R. C. Dubose, John Stallworth, Clyde Howard, Jr., Eugene Smith, Macey Lidell, Viola Sims and Rebecca Leroy, each a true copy of this writ.' Frank Garner, Mamie Simmons, Blanche Johnson and Willie Belle McMillan were not found in Jackson County.

On November 10, 1955, B. R. Upton and others, all individual defendants except Blanche Johnson, who was not served with process, together with C. S. Eshee, James L. Perry, Edner Mae Kelly and Jim Ehlers, not named as defendants, filed their sworn answer. It was averred that there was no such organization as the International Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, but there was an organization known as United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, with its principal offices at Indianapolis, Indiana, with M. A. Hutcheson, 222 E. Michigan Street, Carpenters Building, Indianapolis 4, Indiana, as President; that B. R. Upton and Frank Garner were representatives of the Union, but only of limited authority, on whom no proper process for the Union could be served, but they entered their appearance as individual defendants; that W. C. Oliver was the business agent of Local Union No. 569, chartered by the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, but this local union had no connection with the plant of the complainant; and that the other defendants were members and officers of Local No. 3056, chartered by United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, with C. S. Eshee as President, James L. Perry, Vice President, Mamie Simmons, Recording Secretary, Edner Mae Kelly, Financial Secretary, and Jim Ehlers, Treasurer. And on the same date, the answering defendants filed their motion to dissolve.

On November 17, 1955, the complainant, after leave of court, filed its motion to amend by making as party-defendants, Union Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, with M. A. Hutcheson as President, and at the same address given in the answer; Local Union No. 569, with its business agent as W. C. Oliver; and Local Union No. 3056, with the officers also named in the answer to the bill of complaint. No process of any kind was issued following the amendment.

On the same date, November 17, 1955, the court proceeded with a hearing of the controversy. The evidence showed that the National Labor Relations Board on June 28, 1954, certified United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, AFL, as exclusive representative of the employees of the Pascagoula Veneer Company, which was an open shop. Local No. 3056 thereof was set up for the employees of the Veneer Company. It was a mixed union of ninety to one hundred members. Between fifteen and twenty were white men and women, and the rest, mostly women, were colored. Local No. 569 was also an affiliate of the parent union. There was, however, no connection between these locals, except that they were affiliates of the same parent union. As the result of a labor controversy, Local No. 3056 voted to strike, and, on October 27, 1955, threw up a picket line around the plant.

There was proof that groups of striking employees, acting in concert with the pickets, stationed themselves on the opposite side of the street and at a small cafe and at a nearby store, and accosted and threatened returning or potential workers, many of whom wished to work. The majority of these groups were colored women. A number of acts of violence were testified to: A car coming up behind the car in which Mrs. Leda Pearl Danley drove her husband, a nonstriking fireman, to work late one night pushed her car from one and of the mill to the other. James Perry, an officer of Local No. 3056, was on the picked line at the time. A 'bunch' of colored men, threatening Tommie Danley, a one-armed white worker, told him that he had better stay out of the plant. Three strikers threw bricks into the superintendent's car, which Sam Bishop was driving, and later went to Bishop's home and damaged his car. Four men followed Minnie Lou Hall Taylor, a niece of Sam Bishop, and tried to break windows out of his home. The four tires of the automobile of John Ezell, who continued to work, were cut with a knife. As Jesse Kennedy, a worker, was riding home in the company's truck, Elliott Nicholson, a striker, in a following car, pointed a gun at the truck, and he and others threatened to burn Kennedy's house. Elliott Nicholson and John Williams threw bricks into John Gambrell's car near the plant about 11:00 one night. Nicholson had been walking the picket line. Johnie Williams, a striker, threatened to whip Robert Lett, if he went into the plant. As J. C. Zimmerman passed a crowed of...